Artists Housing Achieves Energy Star Performance

Artists converting old industrial buildings into studio live/work spaces is a familiar story in many urban areas, but the conversion of a decrepit former factory into Brookside Artists Housing came with numerous twists and turns.

At the groundbreaking ceremony for Brookside Artists Housing in Boston, a city councilor recalled how she had spent hours on an Election Day three years earlier sitting with the artists at a hearing that prevented the building’s owner from evicting them. This was a key victory,but it was only the first of many legal and political steps that were needed over several years in order for the artists to secure ownership of the building. Once they owned the building, the artists could address the significant rehabilitation that was needed to bring it up to code, and to transform it into safe and secure live/work spaces. The artists succeeded in getting the building not only up to code—but up to Energy Star standards. Budgetary problems nearly quashed their Energy Star-related aspirations; a creative use of funding sources was what pulled it off. The artists brought in New Atlantic Development Corporation (NADC)— an experienced developer with several urban and historic rehabilitation projects in its portfolio—to oversee the project (see “Achieving High Performance in Affordable Multifamily Housing,” HE May/June &...